The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It fist appeared in print in the issue of The Strand magazine for September 1904. it would be published again in 1905 as part of the anthology The Return of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, Inspector HopkinsThe character of Inspector Stanley Hopkins is introduced in the story "The Adventure of Black Peter" (first published in February 1904). He also appears in "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" (first published in July 1904).He is referred to, but does not appear, in "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter" (first published in August 1904). of Scotland Yard asks the brilliant consulting detective Sherlock Holmes to aid him in investigating the murder of Sir Eustace Brackenstall. When Holmes arrives at Abbey Grange, the murdered Sir Eustace's home, Inspector Hopkins says that his help is not needed. Lady Brackenstall, the murder victim's wife, witnessed the crime and gave descriptions of the murderers. The descriptions she gave match those of three burglars who are known to have been operating in the area recently. Holmes is initially prepared to accept Lady Brackenstall's version of the events. When he inspects the crime scene, however, he realizes that Lady Brackenstall is lying. "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" is the only work in the Sherlock Holmes Canon in which Holmes says, "The game is afoot", a phrase which has become strongly associated with the character due to its frequent use in adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to other media. The story has been adapted for radio and television. Plot Dr. Watson is woken up early one morning in January 1897 by Sherlock Holmes, the private detective who is his friend and housemate. Holmes has received a note from Inspector Stanley Hopkins of Scotland Yard, asking him to come to a house called Abbey Grange in Marsham, Kent. The note refers to someone named Sir Eustace and says, "Except for releasing the lady, I will see that everything is left exactly as I have found it". From Inspector Hopkins' agitated handwriting, Holmes infers that Sir Eustace has been murdered. Abbey Grange is a large house. It is very old but it has been recently renovated. One wing is entirely modern. It was the home of the murdered Sir Eustace Brackenstall. When Holmes and Watson arrive at the house, Inspector Hopkins says that Holmes' assistance is no longer required. Lady Brackenstall, the wife of the late Sir Eustace, has recovered from her shock and given a full account of the crime. From the descriptions that she has given, the murderers appear to be the three members of the Lewisham gang, a gang of burglars made up of an old man named Randall and his two sons. The gang are known to have carried out a burglary in the nearby town of Sydenham two weeks earlier. Holmes and Watson are taken to see Lady Brackenstall. She has a large bruise above one eye which her maid is dabbing with water and vinegar. Lady Brackenstall was born Mary Fraser in Adelaide, South Australia. She arrived in England eighteen months earlier and was married to Sir Eustace for a year. She admits that their marriage was not a happy one due to Sir Eustace frequently getting drunk. His drunkenness meant that Sir Eustace could not be relied upon to check that the house was secure at night, so Lady Brackenstall had to do that herself. Lady Brackenstall was checking that the house was secure at eleven o'clock the previous night. Sir Eustace had gone to bed, as had all the servants. With the exception of Lady Brackenstall's maid, all the servants sleep in the modern wing, away from the main house. Lady Brackenstall noticed that a French window in the dining room was open. She drew back the curtains and saw a bearded old man and two young men. She says that the men may have been father and sons. The men came into the room. The old man hit Lady Brackenstall in the face and knocked her unconscious. When she came to, Lady Brackenstall found herself gagged and tied to a large oak chair. A bell-rope, which had been pulled down from the ceiling, was used to constrain her. Having heard a noise, Sir Eustace came into the room, carrying a stick to protect himself. The old man killed Sir Eustace by striking him from behind with a poker. Lady Brackenstall fainted again. When she came to once more, she saw the three burglars each drinking a glass of wine and noticed that some silver had been taken. Fifteen minutes after the burglars left, Lady Brackenstall managed to get the gag out of her mouth and screamed. Her screams alerted her maid. The maid, another Australian named Theresa Wright who has cared for Lady Brackenstall since she was a baby and appears to have a motherly affection for her, corroborates the story. Inspector Hopkins takes Holmes and Watson into the dining room. They see the large oak chair to which Lady Brackenstall was tied. The bell-rope is still around the chair and its knots are intact because Lady Brackenstall was slipped out of it. Holmes examines Sir Eustace's corpse. He comments that old Randall must be very strong. Inspector Hopkins replies that is known to be the case. It is strange, however, that the Randalls committed their crime knowing that Lady Brackenstall could give descriptions of them. There are also rumors that the Randalls have gone to America. Sherlock Holmes asks Inspector Hopkins for more information about Sir Eustace. Hopkins replies that Sir Eustace was an extremely unpleasant and violent man, especially when drunk. He is known to have killed Lady Brackenstall's dog by setting it on fire and to have thrown a decanter at Theresa Wright. Holmes comments that the bell would have rung loudly in the kitchen when the bell-rope was pulled down. Inspector Hopkins says that is true but nobody would have heard it because the kitchen is at the back of the house. Holmes and Hopkins agree that the criminals must have known the house well and probably had an accomplice inside it. Holmes says that he would suspect Theresa Wright, were it not for her obvious affection for Lady Brackenstall. Sherlock Holmes examines the wine glasses from which the burglars are said to have drunk and the half-empty bottle of wine. He notices that the cork was removed from the bottle with a small corkscrew, probably one on a pocket knife. Holmes hints that there may be something strange about the wine glasses but decides to say no more about the matter to Inspector Hopkins. Agreeing that there is nothing more that he can do to help, he and Watson leave to take a train back to London. During the train journey, Holmes suddenly makes Watson get out at a station so that they can take another train back to Marsham. Holmes says that there are several things which are troubling him about the case. He does not understand why the burglars killed Sir Eustace when they could have simply overpowered him. He knows that the Randalls' burglary in Sydenham was widely reported in the newspapers, along with their description. It would not be surprising if someone used those descriptions in a story of a fake burglary. There were dregs in all three wine glasses but there was beeswingBeeswing is a filmy translucent crust found in some old wines which have been bottle-aged for a long time. in only one of them, even though there was a lot of beeswing in the half-empty bottle. This indicates that only two of the glasses were drunk from and that the dregs from both glasses were poured into a third. When Holmes and Watson arrive back at the Abbey Grange, Inspector Hopkins has left and Sir Eustace's corpse has been taken away. Holmes inspects the dining room again. He climbs onto the mantelpiece to examine what remains of the bell-rope on the ceiling. He notices that the bell-rope was not pulled down but was cut. The man who cut it must have been tall and athletic in order to climbed up on the mantelpiece and reach the top of the rope. The end of the rope which was tied around Lady Brackenstall was frayed to make it appear as if it had been pulled down. Holmes finds blood on the oak chair to which Lady Brackenstall had been tied. Lady Brackenstall would have had her back against that part of the chair. Sir Eustace's blood could not have splattered on that part of the chair if Lady Brackenstall had already been tied to it. Holmes questions Theresa Wright again. Theresa Wright does not hide her hatred for the late Sir Eustace. She says that it is true that he threw a decanter at her and that he was frequently abusive towards Lady Brackenstall. However, he appeared to be charming when the future Lady Brackenstall first met him. Theresa says that her mistress first met Sir Eustace in July 1895, a month after she arrived in England. Lady Brackenstall is questioned again. Holmes tells her to tell him the truth but she insists that she already has. Holmes goes into the garden. He notices a frozen pond which has had a hole cut in the ice so that a swan can continue swimming. He leaves a note for Inspector Hopkins with Abbey Grange's lodge-keeper before he and Watson leave. Back in London, Holmes goes to the offices of the Adelaide-Southampton line steamship company. He finds out that Mary Fraser, the future Lady Brackenstall, came to England in June 1895 on board a ship called the Rock of Gibraltar. The first officer on the Rock of Gibraltar at that time, Jack Crocker, is now captain of another ship and lives in Sydenham. Holmes contemplates going to see the police but decides to send a telegram instead. Later that day, Inspector Hopkins comes to the apartment of Holmes and Watson. He says that Holmes' note was correct. The silver that was taken from the Abbey Grange was put through the hoe in the ice on the frozen pond. Holmes agrees that this could indicate that the burglary was staged. He also suggests, however, that the burglars could have hidden the silver there in order to pick it up later. Hopkins says that the Randalls could not have committed the crime because they were arrested in New York earlier that day. It is still possible that a different gang of three burglars killed Sir Eustace. Shortly after Inspector Hopkins leaves, Captain Jack Crocker comes in response to Holmes' telegram. He agrees to give Holmes a true account of what happened the previous night at the Abbey Grange. Jack Crocker fell in love with Mary Fraser when she traveled from Adelaide to Southampton on board the Rock of Gibraltar. She returned his affections but they did not get engaged. Jack Crocker was not bitter when he heard about Mary Fraser's marriage to Sir Eustace Brackenstall. He believed that she had done well by marrying a wealthy nobleman. Captain Crocker met Theresa Wright by chance in Sydenham one day. She told him about how Lady Brackenstall's husband was abusing her. Crocker continued meeting Theresa Wright and soon began meeting Lady Brackenstall in secret. He became very familiar with the Abbey Grange and the routines of the servants who worked there. The previous evening, Jack Crocker went to the Abbey Grange for another secret rendez-vous with Lady Brackenstall. They were surprised by Sir Eustace, who began shouting abuse at Lady Brackenstall and struck her on the head with his stick. Jack Crocker was furious. He killed Sir Eustace during what he insists was a fair fight. Lady Brackenstall screamed when she saw her husband die. To calm her nerves, Jack Crocker gave Lady Brackenstall a glass of wine. He drank another glass himself. Lady Brackenstall's screams summoned Theresa Wright. It was Theresa's idea to make it look as if there had been a burglary. Holmes tells Jack Crocker that he will not hand him over to the police, although it is possible that the police might find out the truth anyway. If that happens, Holmes and Watson are confident that a jury will find Crocker not guilty of murder. Adaptations "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" was adapted as the fifth episode of BBC TV series Sherlock Holmes starring Douglas Wilmer. It first aired on March 20, 1965. Only the second half of the episode now survives. The second episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the second of four Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett, is an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange". The episode was first shown on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on August 6, 1986. The adaptation is a largely faithful one with a few minor differences from the original short story. For example, the pond is not frozen. Holmes realizes that the silver from Abbey Grange was thrown into the pond when he sees a muddy footprint next to it. Lady Brackenstall arrives at Holmes' apartment when Jack Crocker comes to the end of his confession. Holmes reassures both of them that he will not tell the police what he knows. A faithful radio adaptation of the story, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on October 6, 1993. Footnotes External links *Text of "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" on Wikisource. *Quotations from "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" on Wikiquote. *Public domain audiobook of "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" on YouTube. *"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" on Baker Street wiki. Category:Detective Category:Mystery Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic